With festivals becoming celebrations of consumption to seek happiness, a dozen villages in the Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu present a different picture. For more than 70 years, they have shunned Diwali by abstaining from all kinds of celebrations on that day.

Many villages like Kollukudipatti, abutting the Vettangudi bird sanctuary in the Sivaganga district itself, and Sellappampalayam and its neighbourhood near the Ramsar site in Vellode in Erode district as well as other places, have banned crackers to protect and honour the winged visitors. But it is different here.

For the cluster of 12 villages in S Mambatti Panchayat in Thirupattur Taluk, about 400 km south of Chennai, the festival of lights has faded out of memory. Even elders could not recollect when they had last fired crackers or enjoyed homemade delicacies.

The festival is shunned not because it is considered an Aryan import, as contended by apologists of the Dravidian movement, but for economic reasons. The festival falls in October-November close on the heels of the sowing season when farmers had already taken loans for raising the crops. And celebrating the festival would only add to their financial burden.

“We are least concerned about Diwali celebrations in the villages around us. We are steadfast in adhering to the decision taken by our elders decades ago. We have no regrets,” says V Brahadeeswaran of S Mambatti. “What is the purpose of celebrating it if more than half of the village cannot afford it?” he asks.

“Coming at the sowing season, it is an unseasonal one. Poor farmers availing loans for agricultural operations have to take additional loans from money lenders to celebrate the festival, landing them in a vicious debt trap. For, in those days, the interest was exorbitantly high. It was then decided that it was enough to celebrate Pongal, our cultural expression, which falls during the harvest season,” Brahadeeswaran explained, adding that during Pongal both the land owners and the farm workers would have enough to spend without burdening them.

Interestingly, the villagers have also given up the custom of inviting newlywed couples for ‘Thala Deepavali’, the first Diwali after marriage. Thala Deepavali is important since the couple is given gifts as part of the dowry by the bride’s family. Even former Union Minister EM Sudarsana Natchiappan, who had entered into matrimonial relations with his maternal household in Oppilanpatti, did not send his son for Thala Deepavali or even after that.

The decision to give up Diwali, a momentous one, was taken by the elders of eight villages, belonging to the Thevar community, by invoking divine sanction. They took a pledge before the deity ‘Kadu Kaathan Velar’ (protector of the jungles) and made it clear that any violation would invite divine wrath. Four more villages founded by the residents of this cluster joined them later. It is not that the festival is banished only in Mambatti, but wherever they settle down, it is not celebrated.

“Wherever we go, we comply with the village diktat. Even while working in the Gulf, I did not celebrate it. More than 70 per cent of the men are employed outside, and we never felt compelled to celebrate it,” he says. “The community network and kinship are very strong in this region, and Diwali will remain banished. We see no reason to observe it. I am an outsider who got married here, but I have become accustomed to the local customs,” says Mangaiyarkarasi, whose husband runs a business in Madurai, adding that the festival is not part of their calendar.